30 December 2021 | Imagine a disease that affects 60 million people, with only 3 treatments, one of which kills 5% of the patients, and administration can only be done in hospital. Dr Philippe Neau and his colleagues in Sanofi, NGOs, WHO and governments are working to change the paradigm of treating sleeping sickness to improve the available treatments by bringing oral medicines that  can be easily taken at community health facilities, with shorter courses without requirement for a lumbar puncture that can only be done in a hospital setting.   Products with a better safety and efficacy profiles will also enable the prophalactic treatment and treatment of suspected cases which will help to eliminate the remaining reservoirs of the tsetse fly parasite that causes sleeping sickness. Sanofi product development has been working with communities to conduct clinical trials team with support from local regulators and the European Medicines Agency to register the product in a collaborative registration process. Togo and Ivory coast have been declared free of sleeping sickness and Uganda and DRC have already registered the new improved treatment.